Books

Gaming the Game: The Story Behind the NBA Betting Scandal and the Gambler Who Made It Happen

(Barricade, 2011)

In June 2007, the FBI informed the NBA that one of its referees, Tim Donaghy, was the subject of a probe into illegal gambling. Within months, the public knew the broad outlines of a scheme involving Donaghy betting on games he officiated with a co-conspirator, longtime Donaghy acquaintance and professional gambler Jimmy Baba Battista. They were joined in the scandal by a mutual childhood friend, Tommy Martino. By November 2008, each man had pleaded guilty to charges relating to the conspiracy, and was in federal prison. The story was over. Or so it seemed to be.

(Milo, 2005/2007) Note: The European version of this work was published under the title “Superbad: The Violent Rise and Fall of the Black Mafia”. The content of this book is the same as “Black Brothers, Inc.”

The Black Mafia is one of the bloodiest crime syndicates in modern US history. From its roots in Philadelphia’s ghettos in the 1960’s, it grew from a rabble of street toughs to a disciplined, ruthless organization based on fear and intimidation. Known in its “legitimate” guise as Black Brothers Inc, it held regular meetings, appointed investigators, treasurers and enforcers, and controlled drug dealing, loan-sharking, numbers rackets, armed robbery and extortion. Its ferocious crew of gunmen was led by Sam Christian, the most feared man on Philly’s streets. They developed close ties with the influential Nation of Islam and soon were executing rivals, extorting bookies connected to the city’s powerful Cosa Nostra crew, and cowing local gangs.

Philadelphia’s Black Mafia: A Social and Political History (Studies of Organized Crime, Springer – 2003) *

Philadelphia’s ‘Black Mafia’ could be used as primary reading in deviance and organized crime courses. Academicians in the fields of criminology, sociology, history, political science and African-American Studies will find the book compelling and important.

This book provides the first sociological analysis to date of Philadelphia’s infamous “Black Mafia” which has organized crime (with varying degrees of success) in predominantly African-American sections of the city dating back to the late 1960′s.